Article February 2, 1998 Issue

Home, anywhere

There's no place like this home.

By Lacy Bell Richter

Home Is Such a tender topic. For some, home represents a place of security. For others it typifies togetherness, gives comfort and warmth, provides space and privacy. All these home-related assets are actually independent of where we live. They are essentially spiritual, not material. So home is not an address with a door-knocker; home is a spiritual idea already within us. It is expressed in improved forms as we spiritualize our thoughts of home and think less in material terms.

The example of Christ Jesus helps us. During his three-year ministry, Jesus didn't have his own home. But his thought was so spiritually aligned with God, his Father, that the Master found refuge, safety, and peace wherever he was. He prayed in a wilderness or on a mountain; he slept in a boat; he rested at a public well; he made friends without formality.

Jesus was so conscious of God's allness and loving presence that he never thought of himself as unprovided for by his Father—in fact he felt quite the opposite. He knew that God's gifts are spiritual—reflected in each of His children—so they don't disappear, aren't given to just a few, and never disappoint. We see Jesus' high regard for home in his words "Let not your heart be troubled. ... In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:1, 2).

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